Children at Heart
by Addie Lover of Stories
Summary: Cassandra Cain didn't want the life her father had given her anymore. She hadn't understood what it meant before, but now that she did- she couldn't stand it. So she ran away. Jedi Master Bruce Wayne finds her a little while later and brings her to the Jedi temple. There she is welcomed by a certain old jedi grandmaster, and a fast friendship is formed.
1. Chapter 1: Alone in the Dark

A/N: For those of you who have read my other stories and are waiting for the next update of that, I apologise, life has been crazy and finals are approaching. The only reason this was written is because I found an excuse to do it AS my final for a certain class. (Like i'm not even joking, this is the story version of a script I wrote and am turning in for a grade that I will also post on here because while they are in many ways similar both lose and gain things that the other simply does not have, and so they are actually quite different, and for the reason, I may be posting the script soon as well.)

Now for those of you who don't know me and are just curious about the creation of this story, this story, and this universe, came out of this huge back and forth conversation and collaboration between a friend and myself. There's a LOT more going on in the background and SO many more stories to tell in this universe, so this really is just the first of a series. We've carved out the majority of the Bat Family's backstories in the Star Wars universe, and somewhat how they would interact with the Star Wars characters, but there's a lot more work to go. Now I don't think the friend I worked on this has an account on here yet or else I would credit her as well (as she's freaking amazing and has some of the most awesome ideas!) but till she has an account I'll just say, this wasn't just me, and I love my co-conspirator to death for her brilliance.

* * *

Night on Coruscant was never truly dark. The world was a city that never slept and neon lights illuminated the streets at all times. In the slums in the lower levels of the planet, the lights of passing speeders zipped by, and the lights of street signs, restaurant names, and club logos lit up the crowded streets. Litter collected in outcast corners, but was visible from anywhere you stood. Crowds filled the streets, pushing and shoving each other. Species from every planet, talking in hundreds of different languages, and ignoring everyone around them, only pausing to yell their annoyance when someone shoved past them, or to occasionally glare up at the stormy sky. Today was the day that this section of Coruscant was selected to be cleaned. Today was the day it rained. And this was were Cassandra Cain found herself, six years old, and alone, sitting at a street corner hugging her knees with stained hands to a stained dress, and crying.

She was not scared of the city. Nothing in it held anything that could even affect her in the slightest, none of it, except her father. The man who even now would be searching for her. The man who had taught her everything she knew. How to read bodies instead of how to speak or even understand any language. How to take apart a target in a thousand different ways. How to never be hit. How to take a blaster wound and not even flinch. How to kill. But she didn't want that anymore. She hadn't understood before, she hadn't known what death meant. She hadn't known how it turned out the lights in someone's eyes, how it extinguished their spark, their soul.

She hadn't understood till he had dressed her up in the first dress she'd ever owned, a red one with great big flowers all over it, (she'd loved it), gave her her lightsaber, it's dark blade unignited, and told her to take out her very first target. She hadn't understood till she had walked up the the man her father had signaled her to take out, waited for him to crouch down next to her, his body reading curious and worried, no sign of threat or suspicion. He'd thought she was lost, his flickering eyes said, searching for her parent. Her father was four roofs away.

She hadn't understood till she'd already slashed his neck, quick and painless; till she had already put out his spark. Hadn't understood till the light left the man's eyes, till his body had fallen to the ground reading fear, confusion, and then it was empty, he was an empty shell. No more light, no more spark, no more soul, and his body was reading wrongness. It shouldn't have looked like that, it shouldn't have been frozen in those emotions. Bodies read fluidly, they were moving, changing; she had to read fast when she was first learning, before it became her everything, the only language she knew, could use. She had to read fast or she would miss something. But then, watching his body for his next words, the praise that would surely read from it that she had done well, it wasn't there. There was nothing but those same emotions. It wasn't changing. He wasn't moving. His body wasn't talking. It was frozen in it's last thoughts, and it was so wrong. And she had done that. She had broken him. She had turned out his light, his spark, his soul, and it horrified her. She had made him empty, she had made him an empty shell, and she hated it. Hated it, hated it, hated it! Everything read _wrong,_ and she had to leave, had to escape. And so she ran away.

It'd been two days. She wasn't going back.


	2. Chapter 2: A Guiding Light

Now she sat on a street corner, nowhere to go, and all alone. And that is where she met him. A man in dark jedi robes, a lightsaber hanging from his belt, mechanical limbs lacking any of the usual stiffness associated with the technology that if she hadn't been who she was, she wouldn't have realized he had them. A man with ebony hair and deep blue eyes, who moved so smoothly through the crowd, he could've been a shadow, and in fact, given how little the crowd payed attention to him, he might as well have been one; a hard task for a man as tall and big as he was that he loomed over many of the more humanoid species in the crowd he passed through.

Still, Cassandra wasn't scared. This man wasn't her father, and he certainly wasn't anyone who would work with her father. Despite the man's intimidating stature, he read like someone protecting people, kind hearted, and strong. And sad. The man was very very _sad_. She didn't know why, but, in that moment, she didn't really care either. She knew none of the men who worked with her father could ever read like that, and so she ignored his presence, just like she ignored all the others, and how all the others ignored her.

But the force had other plans, and nudged the man in jedi robes, just enough to make him look, just enough for him to take notice, and after he did, the force needed to take no further action. The man glided over, and crouched down in front of her; this small girl in a stained, red dress, with great big flowers all over it, arms hugging her legs to her chest, and staring at nothing, with big, empty, brown eyes. The rain mixed with her tears, and drenched choppy hair, cut to her shoulders, fell into her eyes.

She paid no attention to his kind, calm tone, issuing from a baritone, if mechanical voice. Paid no attention as he read more and more concerned. Even as he raised his hand to her shoulder.

No, it wasn't till his hand was laid big and warm against her skin still cold and wet from the rain, that she took notice. And when she did, her hand found a grouping a nerves where his arm was still flesh in a split second, numbing the man's arm and causing it to fall limply to his side. The man startled, but only leaned back slightly. She read no fear from him, simply caution, concern, and curiosity, and that gained her attention. The last man to approach her ran away when she did that, (but he read of greed, lust, filth. If her mind had been there fully, and she had known the word, 'disgust' would be the only the thing she thought of him). This one was different.

The man in front of her spoke, in basic and in body, and though she couldn't understand his words, his body spoke of calm, peace, and concern. No threat, no fear, no harm. He spoke of safety. She didn't understand his words, but she knew his message, and she allowed herself to relax the little amount her training allowed her.

The man again started to ask her questions, thinking her recently gained attention would help him gain their answers, but she couldn't answer them for the words were unknown to her, and so she could only shake her head. Cassandra knew so very few words, but there was at least one she did, and when a lull came in the man's questions, she cocked her head and pointed a finger at him and asked,

"Who?"

The man understood now the reason for her silence, and sympathy and apologies rose from his very skin. The man drew up a mechanical hand, pointed to himself, and with carefully enunciated words said,

"Bruce Wayne, Jedi Master."

She tried to repeat his strange sounds, her mouth caught in unfamiliar motions.

"Buuce Way-n, Jedie Maastt-r?"

The man nodded, and gave her a warm smile, and though she was pretty sure she hadn't said it right, she was happy to have satisfied him with her words. Her father had never been the same. Anything less than perfect only resulted in pain and disappointment.

Then the man returned her question, and for a second, she didn't know how to answer. Who was she? Her father didn't call her by name much anymore, now it was only with body. What was it he had called her?

"Cass-sand-dra Cain. Cass."

"Cassandra?" The man asked, and she gave a nod, and then shook her head.

"Cassandra, yes, no. Cass."

"Cass?" The man tried again, and this time she nodded and smiled.

"Cass." The man smiled back, a gesture forged in kindness and tempered by sadness, before a contemplative look came over him, and she watched him as he thought. A minute passed, and then it seemed the man came to a decision, a new smile greeting his face, a welcoming one full of the kindness she had seen through his body. The man stood and held out a hand to her.

"Come?" He asked, a question she knew for once wasn't an order, one she knew offered only safety and comfort. And yet, she still hesitated, for she knew nothing of this man, knew nothing of where she'd be going, and though it would most likely be better than the streets she had so recently found herself on, she at least knew and understood the streets. This was an unknown to her. And so she hesitated, unsure of how to answer, knowing many things would change if she took his hand.

But then, something nudged her senses, just like it had the man in front of her, bringing this girl to his attention, and now it showed her how _right_ this offer felt.

And so she reached out,

and took his hand.


	3. Chapter 3: A New Home

Cass had been at the Jedi temple a month now, where she'd been brought by the Jedi Master that had found her on the streets, and in that time, a mind healer had begun seeing her and teaching her Basic. She was still confused by it, and couldn't follow any of the conversations she heard around the temple or even those spoken by her agemates, for they all spoke too fast and with too many words, but she was glad to be learning. For from what little she _had_ learned, she'd found that sometimes, the words people said were quite different from what their bodies said. This was, as she'd discovered, what was called someone lying. The idea fascinated and puzzled her. She couldn't understand why someone wouldn't say what they meant, or how no one could realized that what the other had said didn't match what they meant when their body so clearly read something different. Couldn't they simply see it? But as she had discovered, no, they couldn't.

Thus, despite her blooming understanding of the language, she still had to rely heavily on reading people's bodies for their words, because as of yet, her grasp on language was weak, and between not knowing the words and the added difficulty of discerning lies from a misunderstanding on her part, it was nearly impossible not to rely on her first language. Not that there were many lies spoken here, mainly the ones she seemed to see came from visitors of the temple, and younglings trying to avoid getting caught for something or other, but it still added to the difficulty, and so she often simply leaned upon what she knew and was certain of. For the most part, she could understand what they said to her and each other when they spoke from their bodies, and so not understanding, wasn't as scary as it could've been.

Especially when nearly everyone here so clearly read of kindness, patience, quiet strength, and peacefulness. None of the things she was used to reading off of people, but something that was incredibly welcoming and pleasant in her mind. It was something she'd never seen before, and it only caused her love and admiration for this place to grow, as well as her gratefulness for the man who'd brought her here.

Still, the building was huge, and for all it's beauty and serene presence, she sometimes greatly disliked it. It was far too easy to get lost, and without the words to ask directions, sometimes, her wanderings between her room, the mind healer's office, and the dining hall, turned into full fledged adventures. It was fun of course, to discover all the temple's various rooms, marvel at it's glorious statues, oggle at it's wondrous gardens, or even scale some it's more interesting architecture, but it was still impressed into her that to be late was to be greeted by pain, and so getting lost often made her panic, or at least it had, before she'd discovered after the first few times it happened that no one would grow angry. Now, while it still made her heart race in the throes of unnecessary fear, she was much calmer than she had been, to the point where it had grown somewhat enjoyable.

And so it was that she found herself wandering down one of the temple's many corridors into yet another of its numerous gardens, passing various jedi of all ages and species as she went. She was supposed to be going to the dining hall for lunch, but somewhere along the way she'd gone down the wrong hallway. This time though, as no one was really expecting her, the irrational fear of being punished for being late never reached her, just the grumbles of an empty stomach. A mighty cause for annoyance, but one that was ignored easily enough. She had after all, gone through much worse than this with her father after the last time she had reacted to a blaster wound.

Besides, despite her grouchy stomach, she was enjoying the calm, quiet beauty of the gardens she found herself in. It was quite nice to sit on the sun warmed lip of one of the gardens beautiful fountains and just enjoy the sun hitting her face, the cool wind brushing across her skin, the scent of blooming flowers greeting her nose, and just- be, for a little while. She had never really gotten the chance to do this before, and now that she could, she happily indulged in it. It was simply wonderful to her, to be able to do anything and not have to have a real purpose behind it besides the excuse of she wanted to, an idea which she was still getting used to itself, but this helped.

So there she sat, swinging her legs back and forth, and humming absentmindedly to herself, enjoying the sunny day, when an older jedi approached her. He was about her height, short, green and wrinkled, but his eyes sparkled with wisdom and humor. He was old, so old, he was young. That's what she saw in him. Kind, old, tired and wise; his presence filled with silent strength and serenity, and yet youth and energy were not illusions to him. He was a puzzle to her, intriguing in his complexity, and she felt she couldn't help but like him from his presence alone.

"Hmm, new you are to the temple." The wizened jedi said slowly, and in words which she had oh so recently learned.

"Yes. The jedie temple is nice. I like it." She replied, carefully saying the words, and the small jedi in front of her chuckled, eyes shining in his amusement, and he read that his laughter was not at her but how much he agreed with her words. It made her smile, this little ancient jedi enjoyed her words!

"Agreed, we are. Welcome you, I do, to the temple. Master Yoda, I am."

"Mastter Yoduh?" The old jedi smiled widely, nodded and said,

"Not yet called that, have I been. Maybe take it as my name I should." The master read of playful contemplation, and Cass giggled. Never had she met anyone like this, and the more she talked to him the more her liking for him grew.

"I don't know if the other jedie would like that name as much, mastter."

"Hmm? Not their name is it! Relax they should, about matters that concern them not." Cass giggled and with happiness finding it's way into her quiet voice said,

"Maybee we could help them relax! Pay attent to their own thingies!"

"How do that do you say we should?" The jedi master said, his eyes sparkling with mischievousness and amusement, the wrinkles surrounding his eyes growing deeper, and the start of a wide smile pulling at his lips. Cass smiled wider, seeing in the small jedi that he was looking forward to her idea, a thought that made her all the more giddy, and caused her swinging legs to quickly find themselves moving at a faster pace.

"Play trixxs! Then they'll have to pay attent to their own thingies and then they laugh at the others in trixxs and everybody is happy and relaxed!" The little girl's huge smile was contagious, and quickly infected the wrinkled master's face, before chuckles erupted from him.

"Hmm, yes! Think that would work I do! But wish to know the name of my partner in crime I do."

"My name's Cass, Mastter Yoduh!"

"A good name, that is." The master said, laughing at first the girl's enthusiasm, and then, a few seconds later, the roar of her still vacant stomach.

"See I do, found the gardens, you have. But perhaps, a journey to the dining hall, could you use?" The old master said knowingly, his kind, if amused, smile never leaving his face, and Cass sheepishly nodded, a shy smile staying present across her lips. The grandmaster only chuckled in response, and gestured for her to follow him, and so she began to dutifully trail after him through the temple.

* * *

In the days that followed, many jedi would wonder how the old troll had gotten such a dedicated follower; everywhere the old master went, a small youngling followed him like a shadow. A tiny human girl, with choppy black hair cut to her shoulders, bright, slanted brown eyes, and initiate robes. The girl didn't even try to hide her actions, sticking to the master's side like a lost puppy, admiring eyes never leaving the ancient master, who never acknowledged her presence except to share conspiring glances that never failed to make the girl burst into delighted giggles, though no one could figure out why.

Though neither could they figure out the culprits of the recent rise in pranks on the knights and masters of the temple. It was yet another great puzzle to them. They suspected a group of younglings, but they could never find any proof, and the younglings wouldn't give up their adamant claim of innocence, and it was growing to be mightily annoying to the jedi, so much so that even jedi who were well known for their tolerance and patience were beginning to fray. Despite this, more smiles could be seen, and laughter heard, than ever throughout the temple, and a camaraderie grew between the pranked jedi, one of laughter and the redundant question of 'so they got you too, huh?'

Unknown to all of them, two beings delighted in their troubles, a brand new jedi youngling, and a mischievous old grandmaster. 


End file.
